Chavez statues falling down all over Venezuela tonight. Same happened to Lenin statues across Ukraine in 2014.

If you were to go by twitter discourse alone, you would assume UberEats and DoorDash were socialized assistance programs that exist to help the disabled survive rather than tech startups that deliver cold birra tacos to 26 year old professionals for an extra $37 fee…

Zients cont: "This is a period of intense noise out there. People are looking for chatter. Tune. It. Out."

Telling people they didn't see what they saw is not the way to respond to this.

Import the Third World, become the Third World. That’s what we just saw. This won’t stop Trump. He’ll win the election if he’s not killed first. But it does mark the end of the fairest justice system in the world. Anyone who defends this verdict is a danger to you and your family.

New Interview: I talked to the Democratic strategist Simon Rosenberg about why he thinks Biden isn’t currently losing to Trump, whether he and the White House are too optimistic about the state of the campaign, and why he doesn’t like poll averages. newyorker.com/news/q-and-a/i…

Cannot stress just how important this is for understanding 2024. It is the Rosetta Stone for pretty much any question you have about Biden, especially compared to other Democrats.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine strikes me as a major failure of war reporting. This was a brutal and unjustifiable invasion, and it's understandable that Western journalists would side with Ukraine on basic grounds of self-defence (as I did and do). The problem is this often took the form of cheerleading in news reporting, which by definition focused on information favourable to Ukraine's military chances, and disregarded information conversely favourable to Russia's military chances. It also has involved a large amount of deference to the claims of Ukraine's authorities. That narrative was bolstered by the failure of Russia's initial war aims, and by Ukraine's partial successes in late 2022 in recapturing occupied land. But Ukraine's repeatedly vaunted 2023 counteroffensive was clearly a terrible failure. The argument being made loudly now is that Ukraine has been starved of necessary weapons from the West, not least due to Republican shenanigans in Congress. But in some Western reporting you will glean other details which you can piece together, such as Ukraine's strategic failures, overhyping its military position (until it was clear Ukraine was in serious trouble), and poor use of supplied weapons. Having to piece together often buried fragments is not an effective means of getting an accurate picture. Clearly making things difficult is a highly effective Russia-linked industry of misinformation. Many reporters may feel concerned that by discussing Ukraine's problems, they will legitimise Russian talking points. They may also feel that there are problems which are exaggerated by Russia's propaganda campaign, which makes nuanced discussion difficult. That makes the need for sober, factual war reporting all the more necessary - not least in an old-style armed conflict between nation states based on national armies fighting each other. That of course includes accurately reporting on war crimes being committed. There's various other problems. There's this whole space of think tanks full of people who clearly see themselves as warriors for Western civilisation, and who see Ukraine's war of self-defence as the key frontier. They've been influential in shaping coverage. Read this from the Atlantic Council last September, for example, headlined 'Ukraine’s counteroffensive is making real progress on the Crimean front'. Oh dear oh dear. atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/uk… There's also a big engaged audience on social media understandably very receptive to anti-Putin content. That incentivises content which tells them what they want to hear, and that's not about Ukraine's problems or Russia's military successes and advantages. There has obviously been very good reporting, including from courageous seasoned war reporters who risk their lives. In general it has been hard to get an accurate picture of the balance of forces in this deeply unpleasant war, not least to get honest assessments of Ukraine's position and strategy. That will leave many bewildered reading about Russia's current military advances. Many will have been left with the impression that a Russian collapse is simply a matter of time, not least when they read hyped claims that Ukraine could even regain annexed Crimea. There's another problem, too. As a @GuardianUS investigation into CNN's pro-Israel bias uncovered, CNN whistleblowers suggested that tolerance for overt pro-Ukraine positioning in news reporting set a dangerous precedent (see attached). Obviously I do not want Russia's kleptocratic, irredentist gangster regime to achieve its war aims in Ukraine. Partisan cheerleading for Ukraine in news reporting is not going to make that less likely (arguably the opposite given it breeds complacency). Here is surely a case study for why we need sober war reporting, with reporters who park their understandably profound sympathy for Ukraine with a clear-eyed factual look at the state of play. Anyway, those are just my thoughts, would welcome those of others!

BREAKING| Israeli forces detonate a currency exchange shop in Tulkarm in the West Bank.

⚡️Palestinians take out a large group of zionist soldiers in Gaza today

Illegal Israeli settlers intercept and attack aid convoys from #Jordan that are heading to the people of #Gaza.